Yes, Trump Explicitly Made It About Race and So Did His Fans and Defenders and They Still Do

For the last week, the 24/7 news cycle has been giving a lot of attention to the curious case of Donald Trump declaring a judge of Mexican descent should recuse himself from the impending Trump University civil trial because the aforementioned Mexican heritage created an “inherent conflict of interests” because, as Donald put it: “I’m building a wall.”

At some point, the additional questions surrounding the judge regarding his membership in the San Diego La Raza Lawyers Association.

Perhaps that organization or the judge’s specific documented views provide Mr. Trump a case (one which he curiously has failed to make official by requesting a recusal), but again, this was after he’d already summarized it several times as being about the fact that “Hey! Dude is Mexican! Wall! I mean seriously, brah!”

So while the debate over the reasons or lack of reasons for recusal continue to rage, I never considered that there might be some actually claiming he never said such a thing.

I was incorrect.

All @realDonaldTrump said was the judge hates him. #Hatefact. He never said it was based on Mexican descent. In fact, he said the opposite.

— Gavin McInnes (@Gavin_McInnes) June 8, 2016

At first I wasn’t sure if this is going to be the new retort or if this is just an isolated incident, but just in case, let’s be clear here. Mr. Trump was very specific that this was about the Judge Gonzalo Curiel’s Mexican… uh … ness.

Turns out yes, this is all becoming another Trump “you took what I said the wrong way because you listened to the words I used” situation.

Via CNN:

Donald Trump sought Tuesday to quell the intensifying criticism over his comments about the impartiality of a federal judge, saying his remarks had been “misconstrued.”

[…]

“I don’t care if the judge is Mexican or not,” Trump told O’Reilly. “All I want him to do is give me a fair shake.”

Luckily, Heat Street already documented what happened in a pithy montage.

For a longer version of Trump saying (if you refuse to believe the original report from the Wall Street Journal quoting him as specifically saying it was his Mexican heritage that was a problem) here’s his interview with Jake Tapper where he flat out says it..

TRANSCRIPT:

TAPPER: he’s a legal citizen

(CROSSTALK)

TRUMP: –I’m going to do very well with Hispanics because I’m going to bring back jobs and they’re going to get jobs right now. I think I’m going to do very well with Hispanics, but we’re building a wall. He’s a Mexican. We’re building a wall between here and Mexico. The answer is, he is giving us very unfair rulings — rulings that people can’t even believe. This case should have ended years ago. The best lawyers — I have spoken to so many lawyers, they said — this is not a case. This is a case that should have ended. This judge is giving us unfair rulings. Now I say why. Well, I’m building a wall, ok? And it’s a wall between Mexico, not another country and —

TAPPER: But he’s not from Mexico. He’s from Indiana.

TRUMP: Mexican heritage. And he’s very proud of it.